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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26945566">Bedtime Story</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluesyone/pseuds/bluesyone'>bluesyone</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Onward (2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:35:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,017</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26945566</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluesyone/pseuds/bluesyone</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian and Barley tell a bedtime story to their little sister Judy about their first epic quest.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bedtime Story</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This started as an idea that Ian and Barley would tell Judy their story of their quest to see their dad one more time as a bedtime story.  It was such a cute and obvious idea that I immediately wrote it down.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Daddy?... Daddy?..."</p><p>Ian was stirring in his sleep, trying to avoid a nightmare. In his dream it was a normal day at school, but one by one everyone but him disappeared, and he was alone in the shadowy, barren halls. All he could hear echoing through his school was...</p><p>"Daddy?..."</p><p>Ian rolled over in his sleep, last sign that he was about to wake. He tried to keep asleep by placing a hand over his closed eyes.</p><p>"Mommy?..."</p><p>He recognized that voice. Ian sat up from his sleep, looking around Ian and Barley's shared bedroom. He caught Barley up and awake, then quickly turned away when he caught Barley quickly putting on shorts. Why does Barley have to sleep in just a shirt and underwear? "Barley."</p><p>"Its Judy," Barley explained as he finished getting dressed and headed out the door. "She's gonna wake up mom and dad."</p><p>Ian hopped out of bed. Thankfully he's dressed in an old t-shirt and some sweat pants. He quietly but quickly followed Barley up to Judy's bedroom. The boys caught Judy sitting in her bed, dressed in a pink nightshirt, her blankets tossed off of her. Ian looked down at his watch, it was almost midnight.</p><p>"Judy, what's wrong?" Barley asked.</p><p>"I can't sleep," Judy replied.</p><p>"Is that all?" Barley asked.</p><p>"Can you read me a story?" Judy asked.</p><p>Barley sighed as he flipped on the lights. Ian groaned from the sudden brightness before entering the room. The boys crossed the room and knelt by a small bookshelf, leafing through a handful of books.</p><p>Ian began reading the titles. "We got the Princess and the Pea, Little Red Riding Hood, Which Witch is Which, Chicka Chika Boom Boom..."</p><p>"I've heard those before," Judy replied.</p><p>"How bout Pretty Pretty Centaurs and the Mystery Tea Party?" Ian suggested.</p><p>Judy pouted. "I want a new story."</p><p>A smile grew on Barley's face. "I've got a story. A story you've never heard of. A story... starring your big brothers!"</p><p>Judy's elfin ears perked. "Really?"</p><p>Ian looked at Barley as he jumped to his feet. "Really?"</p><p>"The story of Ian and Barley's first grand and noble quest!" Barley declared.</p><p>Judy squealed with excitement, but Ian shushed her. "But you have to keep quiet, mom and dad are sleeping."</p><p>Judy covered her big excited smile with both hands.  Barley tucked Judy back into her bed as she laid back down, the best way a centaur can sleep in a bed anyhow.  Ian picked up the Princess Idina doll off the floor and handed her to Judy, which Judy caught in a big hug.  Once Judy was tucked in for bed, Barley sat on the foot of the bed, with Ian sitting close to him on the side.</p><p>“Long ago,” Barley began, “long before you were born…”</p><p>“It wasn’t that long ago,” Ian corrected.  “It was about a year before she was born.”</p><p>“That’s still a long time for a four year old, Ian,” Barley commented, before continuing.  “Back then, it was just me, Ian and mom.”</p><p>“You mean there was no dad?” Judy asked.</p><p>“Colt was just dating mom,” Barley clarified.  “That’s what grown ups do before they get married.”</p><p>“So there was a dad?” Judy asked.</p><p>Ian paused, realizing this story may be a bit complicated for a four year old.  “It’s complicated.  See, long before Colt- dad… your dad… Barley and I… we had another dad.”</p><p>Judy’s eyes grew wide with astonishment and confusion.  “You had two dads?”</p><p>Barley and Ian laughed a little at the comment.  Ian continued.  “Our dad was named Wilden, and he was an elf.  He was around when Barley was little, but right before I was born, he…” Ian paused, not sure how to explain death to a young child.  “He… disappeared.”</p><p>“Why?”  Judy asked.  “Where did he go?”</p><p>Ian quietly replied, “We… don’t know.”</p><p>“But,” Barley interrupted, bringing back the acting bard side of himself, “today was the day we were going to bring him back.  The day of Iandore’s sixteenth birthday!”</p><p>“Wow!” Judy exclaimed.  “Ian, you were old!”</p><p>Barley burst out laughing while Ian had a flat look on his face.  “Barley, we’re supposed to keep quiet.”</p><p>Barley stopped laughing and cleared his throat.  “Anyway, our story begins the evening of Ian’s sixteenth birthday.  That was when mom gave us a very important present.  It was a gift that our dad had saved for us until both me and Ian turned sixteen.”</p><p>“What was it?” Judy asked.</p><p>“It was a wizard staff!” Barley replied, Ian shushing him.</p><p>Judy, however, was loud too.  “Ian’s staff!”</p><p>“Eventually,” Ian continued.  “Until then it was just a staff.  Barley tried to use it first, but it didn’t work.”</p><p>“Oh, because you have the gift and not him,” Judy stated.</p><p>“That’s right,” Ian replied.  “But he didn’t know that.  And neither did I.”</p><p>“Not until you used the wizard’s staff,” Barley added playfully, before continuing the story.  “With the staff was a powerful stone called the Phoenix gem, and an equally powerful spell that could bring one person back for one whole day.”</p><p>“And you brought your dad back, right?” Judy asked.</p><p>“Not exactly.”  Ian explained.  “Something went wrong, and it only brought dad halfway back.  Like, just his legs.”</p><p>“And that’s when we knew our quest began,” Barley told the tale.  “We only had twenty four hours to find another Phoenix gem, and bring back our dad.”</p><p>Judy was in awe.  “Wow.”</p><p>“Dang right wow,” Barley replied.</p><p>“First, we needed to know where to find a Phoenix gem,” Ian said.  “And Barley had his own gift of knowledge, which helped us find someone who had a map to the gem.”</p><p>“The Manticore,” Barley declared.</p><p>Judy lit up with excitement and sat up from her bed.  “Aunt Corey!”</p><p>Ian smiled as he motioned for Judy to lay back down.  “Yeah.  Back then, though, she wasn’t part of the family yet.  Just a big, scary beast who ran a tavern.  At first, she wouldn’t give us the map.”</p><p>“Why?” Judy asked.</p><p>Ian paused, but realized this next part involves flames and a burning tavern, and he thought that would scare Judy and keep her awake.  “She… was testing us,” he quickly changed the story.  “But, she eventually saw the Heart’s fire inside me and Barley and knew we were worthy of the map.  And the map said we should go to Raven’s Point.”</p><p>“So, with our destination, we headed north,” Barley continued the tale.  “Towards the mountain.”</p><p>“But first, we had to stop to get gas for Guinevere,” Ian added.</p><p>“You mean the van?” Judy asked, pointing to the window outside.</p><p>“This was a different van,” Barley explained.  “A different Guinevere.”</p><p>Judy was surprised.  “You had two Guinnyveres?”</p><p>“Had, yes.”  Barley got sad at first, but then shook his head.  “But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.  So, we’re getting sustenance for ol’ Guinny, when we were suddenly chased by a gang of sprites.”</p><p>Ian made a concerned, worried face.  He skipped over the fire, but Barley left in the biker gang?  However, it made Judy laugh.  Probably because Judy was imagining them as sparkly little pixies, and not vengeful blood-thirsty thugs.</p><p>“The sprites rode these wicked awesome motorcycles,” Barley told Judy, “so we had to get rid of them by going on this action-packed car chase.”</p><p>“And we got rid of the sprites,” Ian interrupted, before Barley got into any scary details, “but it got some cops attention.”</p><p>“Daddy?” Judy asked.</p><p>“Not yet, two different cops,” Ian explained.</p><p>“Oh!  But we did use the disguise spell to pretend to be Colt!” Barley added.</p><p>“Right, the disguise spell,” Ian continued.  “We used the spell to convince the cops as Colt to let us go.  It was really hard to keep the disguise, because I had to keep telling the truth, and…”</p><p>Barley’s smile faded too.  “Oh.  This part.”</p><p>Judy was confused and on the edge of her seat.  “What?  What happened?”</p><p>Ian paused a moment before explaining, “The spell revealed something that I thought about Barley.”</p><p>“What was it?” Judy asked.</p><p>Ian didn’t have the heart to explain it.  Instead, he skipped ahead.  “I remember, whatever it was, it got Barley mad.  And, we had a fight.  But then…” Ian began to laugh.  “And then, dad…” Ian couldn’t help it, he began to laugh even more, and Barley was laughing along with him.</p><p>Judy tilted her head as one of her elf ears perked up.  “What’s so funny?”</p><p>Barley tried to explain through his laughter.  “Our dad… which remember, is just a pair of legs at the time… he just… starts dancing.”</p><p>“Oh my gosh, it was so terrible,” Ian laughed.</p><p>“Yeah, it was something like this!” Barley stood up and started dancing erratically in the middle of the room.</p><p>Judy laughed the loudest of all of them.  “Your dad sounds funny!”</p><p>Ian realized it was supposed to be a bedtime story, and the last thing they need is energy.  “Okay okay, everyone settle down.  Let’s finish this story and go to bed.”</p><p>“Okay okay.”  Barley cleared his throat and sat back down on the foot of the bed.  “So, we continue on our quest, following the ancient Path of Peril to Raven’s Point.  When suddenly, we hit another obstacle in our quest:  a bottomless pit.  And the lever to release the drawbridge so we can safely cross over said pit was on the other side.”</p><p>Judy gasped.  “What did you do?”</p><p>Ian gulped.  There was no sugar coating this part of the story.  “Barley had the bright idea to use the trust bridge.”</p><p>“But it worked!” Barley explained as he mimed with his arms and hands.  “The trust bridge is a magic spell that creates an invisible bridge that you can walk across.  But it only works if you trust the bridge is there.”</p><p>“And I was nowhere near as confident to believe that,” Ian continued.  “So Barley had another bright idea of tying a rope around my waist in case the spell failed and I fell.”</p><p>“Oh, this is my favorite part!”  Barley took over the story.  “So after one or two tries, Ian has enough confidence for the spell to work.  And he begins walking over the invisible bridge, right?  But, halfway across the pit, the rope slipped off of Ian.”</p><p>Judy gasped loudly.  “Ian fell in?”</p><p>“No, thank goodness,” Ian sighed.  “I didn’t notice the rope was gone, so I thought it was still tied to me.  That was thankfully enough confidence I needed to cross the bridge, get to the lever and lower the drawbridge.  But, I still wasn’t happy to know that the rope was gone.”  Ian glared at Barley.</p><p>Barley shrugged.  “Hey, it’s not like you needed it.”  Judy laughed before Barley continued.  “So just as we’re about to embark on the quest, we get stopped by Colt.”</p><p>“Daddy’s in the story now?” Judy asked with a smile.</p><p>Barley paused, remembering how this part went.  “Oh.”  He glanced over to Ian for help.</p><p>Ian tried to explain, “Colt didn’t know what we were doing, so he thought he was doing the right thing when he told us to turn around and go home.  It’s not his fault, he didn’t know any better,” he added quickly, seeing Judy frown.  “So, Barley and I got in the van and… that’s when I did something stupid.”</p><p>Judy was in suspense.  “What did you do?”</p><p>Ian admitted, “I ran from the cops.”</p><p>Judy gasped in shock.  “But daddy says not to run from the cops!”</p><p>“I know I know, and it was stupid thing for me to do,” Ian quickly admitted.  “Cause we ended up at a dead end and…” Ian paused.  Then he turned his head to Barley.</p><p>Barley quietly warned Judy, “This is when we lost the first Guinevere.”</p><p>Judy frowned sadly.  “Oh no, what happened?”</p><p>“I drove her into a cliff to cause an avalanche to block the cops from getting to us,” Barley said.</p><p>“Why would you do that?” Judy asked in disbelief.</p><p>Barley stated, “At the moment… I wanted to risk anything so me and Ian could see dad.”</p><p>Ian waited a moment before continuing softly.  “So, we followed the ravens.”</p><p>“I thought you were going to Raven’s Point,” Judy said.</p><p>“No, that’s the thing,” Ian explained.  “While at the bridge, Barley found this statue of a raven.  And it pointed to another raven statue, then another, and then another.  And he realized the ravens were pointing us to the gem.”</p><p>Judy’s eyes grew wide.  “Wow, that’s smart.”</p><p>“Why thank you,” Barley playfully boasted, causing Ian to playfully smack him in the shoulder.</p><p>“So, we followed the ravens to a river,” Ian continued, “but at that point we realized that we were running out of time if we wanted to get the Phoenix gem in time to see dad.  So, we used a growth spell on one of Barley’s cheese curls, and used a velocity spell to turn it into a magic jet ski.”</p><p>Judy clapped her hands.  “Can we do that?  That sounds fun!”</p><p>“Later, later.”  Ian helped Judy lay back down.  “So we follow the river to the end.”</p><p>“The final gauntlet.”  Barley continued.  “This is when the quest threw everything it had at us.  Booby traps.  Gelatinous cube.  Spike pits.  Water trap.  But with our Heart’s fire, we made our way through all of them and to our victory!”</p><p>“And you got the Fee-next gem!” Judy cheered.</p><p>“No,” Ian replied.</p><p>Judy quieted down in confusion.  “No?”</p><p>Ian explained.  “We ended up home, in front of the high school.  And… that’s when I got mad.  And… I said some things I shouldn’t have said to Barley, and stormed off.  I ended up watching the sun about to set, alone with dad, thinking of all the things I wouldn’t be able to do with him.  I never got to meet dad, and there was so much I wished that I did with him.  Play catch, take a walk, laugh together… share my life story with him.  But, as I thought over what I wanted to do with my dad… I realized that I did all that with Barley.   I never had a dad… but I always had my brother.”</p><p>Judy sniffed, tears beginning to roll down her cheek.</p><p>“Hey, hey, don’t cry.  You got us too.”  Barley wiped a tear from Judy’s face.  “Now dry those tears, cause this is where it gets good.  Cause it turns out, while Ian was having his big moment, I found the Phoenix gem!”</p><p>“I thought there was no Fee-next gem,” Judy said.</p><p>“So did I,” Barley explained.  “But, across from the school was an old fountain, and inside the old fountain was the gem.”</p><p>Judy was excited.  “You can bring back daddy!”</p><p>“Not yet, because the fountain also released a curse,” Barley told.  “It released a giant dragon, made of metal and concrete, and breathed fire and flew on mighty wings.”</p><p>“Oh no,” Judy gasped.  “What did you do?”</p><p>“First, mom took care of the beast,” Barley said.</p><p>“Mom’s in the story now?” Judy asked.</p><p>“Oh right.”  Ian told Judy, “You have to tell mom her side of this story, she tells it so good.  Anyway, mom fought off the dragon so I could have time to cast the spell.  But, it wasn’t long enough.  So, Barley and I had to decide who was going to distract the dragon.  And I thought Barley should stay with dad and say goodbye.”</p><p>“Goodbye?  You mean hello?” Judy asked.</p><p>Barley grew quiet as he sadly explained.  “Yeah, we almost forgot this part.  See, before dad di… disappeared, I was supposed to say goodbye to him.  But, he wasn’t himself.  Dad was fun and energetic, but before he left, he was tired and sick.  I got scared… and I didn’t go in.”</p><p>“When I knew,” Ian added, “that’s when I knew Barley had to see dad.  If it was just one of us, it had to be Barley.”</p><p>“But… you never got to see dad,” Judy said sadly.</p><p>“Yeah,” Ian replied softly.  “But, Barley got to say goodbye.”</p><p>Barley told Judy.  “I only had a few minutes to speak to dad, before he disappeared forever.  He said that he is proud of the men me and Ian grew up to be.  And, he also said to give Ian this.”  Barley then leaned over and softly gave Judy the biggest, strongest, longest, loving of hugs.  Judy sniffled, before squeezing Barley as tight as she could.  Ian smiled as his eyes glistened with joy.  Barley finally released the hug and sat back up.  “The end.  Time for little princesses to go to bed,” he said with a soft boop of Judy’s elfin nose.</p><p>Judy’s eyes were still wet with tears, but she managed to snuggle under the sheets with her princess doll.  “I love that story.  Can you tell it to me again tomorrow?”</p><p>“Definitely, sister,” Barley nodded.</p><p>Ian smiled and nodded.  “Of course we will.”</p><p>Judy smiled, then closed her eyes.  Knowing she’s not asleep yet, the boys began to creep out of her bedroom.  “Ian,” Judy called out, “can you cast a light spell for me?”</p><p>“Sure I can, oh shoot, I left my staff downstairs,” Ian whispered back.  “I’ll be back in a second.  You get some sleep.”</p><p>Judy closed her eyes again.  “Good night.”</p><p>“Night, Judy.”  Ian closed the door.  He turned to see Barley was stopped in the hallway as well.  In front of them were Laurel and Colt, both in their pajamas, both with the biggest, warmest, sweetest smiles on their faces.</p><p>“That was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen,” Laurel finally said quietly as she went in to hug Ian and Barley.</p><p>Barley was caught in the hug, but Ian managed to escape at the last second.  “Okay, mom,” he laughed quietly, “I gotta cast a light spell for Judy and go to bed.”  On his way down the hall, Colt placed his hand on Ian’s head, mussing up his hair.</p><p>“Proud of you boys,” Colt quietly told them with a proud smile.</p><p>Ian smiled back.  “Thanks, dad.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>What surprised me is that many people who read this story were more touched by Ian and Barley calling Colt "dad."  Okay, not that surprised, but still.  If you're curious, I like to think it took some time for the boys to call Colt dad, but Ian was the first one to do so, most likely about a year after Colt married Laurel.  Barley needed a little more time than that, probably a year and a half or two years.  Don't worry, they still remember and call Wilden dad.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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